What might have remained an obscure but seminal concrete work has been brought back to life, thanks to a conservation effort involving extensive artistic and engineering expertise. Nearly 80 years after its November 15, 1922, dedication, the Fountain of Time in Chicago has once again been unveiled.

The colossal sculpture was designed by Lorado Taft (1860-1936), an affiliate at various points in his career of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois, and University of Chicago. The latter institution, proprietor of the Lorado Taft Studio, is located adjacent to Washington Park, for which the fountain serves as a gateway.

The latest conservation and restoration are the culmination of more than 20 years of surveys, planning and fund-raising. Financed primarily by the Art Institute-administered Ferguson Fund, with support from the Chicago Park District and Washington, D.C.-based Save Outdoor Sculpture, the Fountain of Time work marks the first phase of a $430,000 undertaking. A second phase will entail renovation of a reflecting pool that separates the sculpture from a towering Father Time figure.

After nearly 80 years, even the estimable, 126-ft.-long ∞ 23-ft. 6-in.-deep ∞ 24-ft. 9-in-high Fountain of Time showed signs of distress. Over time, absorption of moisture in combination with repeated freeze/thaw cycles had caused significant cracking and erosion. Upon examination of its hollow interior, the structure was found to be completely saturated and host to abundant organic growth, a condition exacerbated by wicking along the base of the sculpture where it abuts the pool.

Accordingly, a team lead by the Art Institute's Robert Jones, Director Department of Design and Construction, comprising Barbara Hall, objects conservator, and Chicago Park District officials as well as project conservator Andrzej Dajnowski determined that tackling the drainage problem was a necessary first step. The pool's double-slab structure originally designed in 1922 was examined by Northbrook, Ill.-based Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE). The lower 6-in. slab was found to be intact, necessitating removal and replacement only of the top, 6-in. concrete layer to be completed at a later date.

Principals credit much of the restoration groundwork to earlier contributors, chief among them WJE affiliate Erlin, Hime Associates. A restoration plan, however, was not initiated until 1993 when Chicago architect Bauer Latoza Studio became involved. According to William Latoza, a complete documentation of the sculpture was undertaken over five years, including past successes and failures, material analysis, petrographic testing, chemical analysis of the concrete, finish concrete mix design, and resurfacing techniques.

The mechanical ventilation system implemented by Bauer Latoza was found upon evaluation by the current team to be in need of upgrading. Access to the sculpture's interior provided by a single unlockable hatch was also targeted for improvement. Following an April 1999 startup, it soon became apparent that work would not be completed in a single season. Thus, a $150,000, Butler-type metal building enclosing the sculpture was erected to facilitate operations until the Fall of 2001.

Contractor Takao Nagai of Takao Nagai Associates, Ltd., Villa Park, Ill., was responsible for stabilizing the sculpture's concrete support structure. Using a gunnite technique, shotcrete was applied to the interior, coating several new, whale-rib reinforcement beams installed where additional support was needed. For this purpose, acrylic resin served as a bond breaker allowing support by the reinforcing ribs without crack-inducing adhesion.

Cracking problems throughout the sculpture were tackled by a team under the supervision of Andrzej Dajnowski of the Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio, Inc. (CSOS), Forest Park, Ill. For fine cracks, a masonry filler was used. Larger cracks of 2 in. or more required titanium studs, which have a thermal expansion rate closest to that of concrete. Moveable joints were created at six or seven strategic cracks by a system of studs and wire securing the concrete surfaces separated by an acrylic resin at their interface.

Following these conservation measures, including removal of old repair materials, a few weeks of steam washing and Prosoco treatments for organic matter, surface recreation and reconstruction of missing elements became a priority. A thin parget of approximately ¼ in. of concrete was applied successively to 8- ∞ 8-ft. areas over the entire 10,000-sq.-ft. sculpture surface. Where details such as eagles' heads, hands, a trumpet and other sculptural elements were missing, parts modeled largely on the basis of photographic documentation from the archives of the Chicago Park District, Art Institute, and University of Illinois-Champaign were appended. In addition to overall resurfacing, Dajnowski's team of conservators provided further definition for the features of several prominent figures in the procession.

As material specialists for the project, WJE specified a concrete mix on the basis of extensive testing of Fountain samples and analysis of material samples provided by CSOS. A soft, sacrificial mix designed by CSOS comprising 1.5 parts pozzolan cement, 0.5 part lime putty, and seven parts sand was selected for its binding properties and a tendency to spare aggregate particles in case of erosion. Vintage photographs as well as evidence from sheltered patches on the surface of the sculpture pointed to a predominately yellow tone in the original concrete mix. An appropriate shade was created using TXI buff-colored Adobe cement, sand obtained at the fountain site, and a gravel geologically identical to the Potomac River aggregate used by John Earley. Crushed to ¼ in.-½ in. in diameter, the aggregate particles lend a golden hue to the concrete. Lorado Taft gave his enthusiastic approval when he viewed the results in 1922 — and would likely do so today.

EARLEY MARKS TIME WITH TAFT SCULPTURE

Inspired by a 19th Century English poet's verse, Lorado Taft created a plaster model of a sculpture intended for Chicago's Midway — the site of the 1893 World's Fair — that would embody Austin Dobson's couplet:

Time goes, you say?
Ah, no.
Alas, time stays: we go.

He conceived of Time as an immense, brooding figure looming over the wave of humanity passing before him in its never-ending march. As he developed the concept, the group of figures representing humanity's struggle became longer and longer. In 1920, after seven years of work, Taft put the final touches on a plaster model incorporating nearly one hundred figures emerging and receding into a wavelike mass 120 feet long, 18 feet high, and 14 feet wide. When carvers could not be found to even bid on such a huge and complicated project and bronze was rejected as an unsuitable medium, Taft was directed via the Bureau of Standards to John Earley. Facing a new challenge and the opportunity to implement his new ideas about concrete, Earley undertook the casting of the largest single group of statuary of his time.

Unlike most large sculptural groups to date composed of separately cast figures assembled on a single base, the Fountain of Time would require a mold of unprecedented size and complexity for the 120-ft. long stream of humanity. It was determined that the sculpture would be made hollow, thereby saving concrete, reducing weight on the foundation and, most importantly, permitting the removal of excess water by means of a porous core. To construct the core — a critical part of the job — contours of the plaster model were first drawn at every foot of elevation to survey the structure, as if the model were submerged in water one foot at a time and a line drawn where the surface of the water abutted the plaster. The contours sawn from wood were made about four inches smaller around the entire outline of the model to allow a four-inch space between the core and the exterior plaster molds. A highly porous, inside form was then constructed by covering the contours assembled on a strong framework with metal lath and a coat of lean, noncompacted mortar.

Constructing the outside plaster mold, hundreds of separate sections, which could be easily and quickly removed as the concrete was cast, were required due to the extreme irregularity of the figures. Made of plaster of Paris reinforced with jute fiber and two-inch iron pipe, these pieces varied considerably in size: the smallest were 12 in. across; the largest weighing close to 1000 lb. were about 2.5 ft. ∞ 4 ft. In all, 4,500 pieces comprised what would be the largest plaster piece-mold ever made.

From this point, the project proceeded smoothly. For the concrete mix, Earley proposed the use of crushed Potomac River gravel for the aggregate to include pebbles ranging in color from white to yellow to brown and of such size that the concrete would appear uniform in color and texture when viewed at a distance of 100 ft.

Given careful planning and extensive preparations, the pouring of the concrete was completed without a hitch in spite of challenging conditions. As Earley explained, the concrete mix had to be very soft in order to fill so complicated a form and firm enough not to shrink away from the dome-like surface of the mold. Effecting a change in consistency while the concrete was in the mold, the absorbent core was crucial in satisfying both requirements as it extracted excess water while leaving sufficient moisture for hydration of the cement. Following 26 pours into which the work was divided, the Fountain of Time was completed on schedule during the summer of 1922 and dedicated November 15 of that year. Thus, Earley's “architectural concrete” proved also to be a fine arts medium.
— Adapted from The Man Who Made Concrete Beautiful, Frederick W. Cron, Centennial Publications, Ft. Collins, Colo., 1977.

PIONEERING ARCHITECTURAL PRECAST

Concrete practitioners are indebted to John Earley for exposed aggregate finishing techniques patented by his Studio in 1940 and later refined by Mo-Sai Institute, the first licensor of the step (gap)-graded aggregate method to achieve uniformity and color control in thin architectural precast. The exposed aggregate finish inaugurated with the Meridian Hill Park project (Washing-ton, D.C., 1915-1936) and used concurrently for the Fountain of Time (Chicago, Ill., 1922) achieved sufficient acclaim to recommend it for a number of distinguished Earley projects to follow, including the Polychrome Houses (Silver Spring, Md., 1934-1935), U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C., 1934), and his crown jewel, the Bahá'í Temple Dome (Wilmette, Ill., 1932).

EARLEY ACHIEVEMENTS HERALD LATER SUCCESS

Following the death of James F. Earley, the work of the Earley Studio — established as a stone carving and modeling enterprise prior to 1900 — assumed a new direction under the leadership of Earley's son, John Joseph Earley, and Basil Taylor, who had worked for the senior Earley. The Studio became primarily a plaster and stucco firm performing extensive work in both private and government projects, including the renovation of the White House interior during President Roosevelt's first term.

MERIDIAN HILL PARK EXPOSES AGGREGATE FINISH

For a public park in the upscale Meridian Hill residential section of Washington, D.C., to be built by the U.S. Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, architect Horace Peaslee of that department designed an elaborate neoclassical composition of retaining walls, stair cases, balustrades, reflecting basins, and formal gardens. The park was to incorporate concrete construction with a stucco finish in order to save expense. In 1915, the Earley Studio was hired to do the stucco work.

When, according to contractual agreement, a sample wall was cast and stuccoed for approval by the architect and the U.S. Fine Arts Commission, results were deemed unsatisfactory: the flat gray color was drab and uninteresting. On a second attempt, when Earley cast the piers against plaster molds to produce deep rustications and a rough, textured finish, the walls despite contrasting highlights and shadows retained the cold, gray color of portland cement.

Cass Gilbert, chairman of the Fine Arts Commission, then suggested a pebble mosaic finish made by pressing pebbles of various colors into still-moist mortar. Earley was confident he could produce such a finish; however, considerations of labor costs and durability given freeze/thaw cycles led him to consider a different option. Producing a mosaic finish using the pebbles already in the concrete mix seemed a perfect solution to the dilemma. Aggregate dredged from the Potomac River and typically used for concrete production in the Washington area provided yellowish-brown pebbles. For the pebbles to show, the gray covering of portland cement had to be removed from the surface aggregate by stripping the forms while the concrete was still “green,” or not fully set, and using wire brushes to expose the larger pebbles. Given the natural color of the Potomac gravel, the finished wall glowed a creamy tan.

Approved by the Fine Arts Commission, the new finish, however, was still less than perfect. A blotchy, nonuniform appearance was caused by the tendency of pebbles to bunch into pockets surrounded by areas of gray, sandy mortar. Earley set out to find a solution by studying the properties of concrete as a material: he concluded that nonuniform appearance was related to the proportioning of ingredients in the concrete mix. The specifications for Meridian Hill Park called for a 1:2:4 mix, i.e., one part of cement to two parts of sand and four of gravel, measured by volume. Furthermore, the sand and gravel were required to be “uniformly graded” or composed of several sizes of particles such that each successively smaller size filled the spaces between the particles of the next larger size. In practice, even distribution did not always occur.

On the basis of elementary geometry, Earley reasoned that a uniform surface would appear if spheres of one size are arranged on a surface so that each sphere is in contact with those adjacent; accordingly, gravel pebbles of one size and just enough sand and cement to fill the spaces between them should result in uniform distribution. Experimenting with many different combinations of sand and pebbles, Earley arrived at a particle-diameter ratio of 10:1 defining the most conducive relationship between the single-size pebbles and sand particles also of one size. This ratio yielded a mix providing the desired uniformity — thus inaugurating “step-graded” concrete — in addition to the greatest face area of pebbles when the aggregate was exposed by brushing. With this improvement, Earley was able to cast hundreds of square feet of walls with virtually no segregation or bunching of aggregates.
— Adapted from The Man Who Made Concrete Beautiful, Frederick W. Cron, Centennial Publications, Ft. Collins, Colo., 1977.